The best advice I can give you is that Simon's whip animation takes 20 frames, so you can basically whip that fast. There's some rhythm and timing to it, but one of the easiest ways to practice is to launch the game, and then hold right and try to whip in rhythm. If you are frame perfect with it, Simon will literally not move forward at all. If he moves forward then whips, that means you were late. if he moves forward without whipping, it means you were early. Eventually you can try to play a game with yourself on how many whips in a row you can do without Simon moving, then try to break that record. I play on hardware, so my visual cue when I was learning was when I saw the whip fully extended, but everyone's different and with enough practice you'll learn to "feel" the rhythm of it.

With the lizardmen (salamanders), if you're perfect on all four whips, you'll actually be TOO fast and cause the heart to drop too far left and spawn the wolf when you pick it up. Still, that's a better problem to have than not fast enough. You'll eventually get a feel for slowing down on the last whip to let them move right a bit for easy collection.

Additionally, for potentially your own sanity, they are invulnerable for the frame that they shoot the fireball. Early on you will probably be not quite fast enough and get hit with a fireball even though you thought you whipped them. Don't worry, this means you're getting closer/better!

If any of the other players say anything different from me, please take their advise over mine, as they're much more knowledgeable than me. This was just how I learned it. I hope it helps!

I've been able to get the glitch to give a couple extra laps here/there, but it becomes seemingly MUCH more difficult. It was effectively faster for me to just run the third loop than try to glitch through it.

Someone redeemed a channel point redemption on another streamer's channel to do a code dive into super sprint, but it'll be a few months away. I'm hoping it may be able to shine some light on things if we can't figure it out before then!

I had a bit of free time and got a bit better at the glitch. There's actually a rhythm to it to not waste pauses, as well as the skill to get around the track ASAP without blowing past the finish line:

That's one loop in exactly 7 laps; 2:15. With some time/effort a sub-2 should be possible.

Still, if we want to make it it's own category that's a good starting time, I think.

I just wanted to make a post to show some glitches I found in super sprint and see what the community/Yels thinks should be done about them.

Both of these glitches have to do with the way super sprint checks/assigns credit for laps. Very loosely, there are hidden "flags" on the track that the player must cross, in order, and then when you then cross the finish line (in any direction) super sprint does another check and gives you credit for a lap, then resets the mid-lap flags. There are two glitches I've found that revolve around these flags/checks in different ways.

The "backwards lap" glitch is done by hitting all of the hidden flags on the track, and then crossing the starting line backwards. In theory you shouldn't ever want to do this, but Super Sprint will still give you credit for a lap anyway. Here's an example of me running Track 0 backwards (it's may be impossible to win it with all backwards laps though)

Track 0 backwards:

Why would this ever be useful? On track 6 with the first loop that you can hit the two flags in, but not actually DO the loop. it is possible to use this exploit and get lap credit, and win, without actually doing the laps.

Track 6 non-full laps:

Only 3 of the 5 laps were properly completed in that video, yet I was still able to win the track. It's slower than performing normally, but could still be a potential issue as to whether the run is "valid" or not.

The most game-breaking glitch is the "pause glitch" that gives false lap credit due to exploiting the lap checking mechanism at the finish line. If you cross the finish line with all mid-lap flags triggered, and mash the start button as you cross the line, you can force the game to recheck and give additional fake laps. I didn't check if this works going backwards, but it probably does. Either way, it doesn't matter, as I put up a 4:01 in my second attempt with it.

See Video here:

Instead of the 35 required laps to complete one-loop, I completed it in 13 laps. You could optimize it to get it down to 7 laps only, for sure.

I'm obviously not a mod but I figured I'd try to bring these glitches to light before someone else finds them, submits a run (for WR or otherwise), and then we have to deal with it after it's already been completed.

I would definitely recommend the use of pause should be entirely ruled out for all three current categories, and if people wanted to run the game glitched then maybe new categories could be created (I can't even guess if people want to do that though)

The backwards lap glitch seems to be ALWAYS slower than performing well at the game, but you're still not actually completing laps. A 5:XX run could theoretically be saving time by making use of this exploit in a tricky area like the track 6 loop where AI cars knock you around in there.

Sorry for the very long-winded post, and thanks for taking the time to read it!

I appreciate you taking the time to read and respond to my post!

Certainly an overhaul of the entire leaderboard has got to be a challenge. I have no idea how any of it works, let alone on SRC. And having the backups is definitely important and I can imagine you don't have the tools provided to make it easy. I don't envy you for that! I do understand having to protect integrity of leaderboards and not just throwing any suggestion any runner wants up into a new category, too. It can't be easy having to make those decisions, but I would have assumed a damageless category would have been an exciting addition.

It leads me to just one last question, as it does sound like there's no interest in adding the category at this time. I know Ninja Gaiden Damageless was a very big deal (due to unlocking the secret behind the demon head kill) but is a damageless run in this game not prestigious? I understand his time was lengthier compared to any% (much like slackanater's original damageless gaiden was) due to safety strats, but not taking a single hit across a 30+ minute run seems difficult.

I'm just curious as to the estimated difficulty/prestige of a damageless run in this game - I would assume it would be difficult if other runners haven't taken the time to try it out - much the same as low% or Whip Only would be much more difficult than any% as well. I understand not every any% player is going to try the subcategories either, though, which is why I'm curious where it's regarded in difficulty or why nobody else has bothered to run it. With damageless in any game, I had assumed that difficulty would be the hardest barrier to entry (unless you wanted to put up a several hour run?) Maybe I just have a lot to learn about other games, though!

Thanks again for your time and consideration in helping educate me!

I'm a new speedrunner (I play ninja gaiden) and have noticed a lot of hype surrounding damageless runs recently. Ninja Gaiden obviously had Slackanater complete the first ever last year and there was hype for "damageless march" that resulted in Edo and CHX both putting up times alongside Slack on the Damageless scoreboard.

I noticed, however, that there is not a damageless category for Castlevania 2, despite what looks like ViggoTheeCarpathian submitting a damageless run. I found it in the Any% category. It looks like it's about 3 weeks old so I wasn't sure if it takes time to create/move the run to the category, or if there was no intention of making a damageless category for this game.

I realize that Castlevania 2 has many categories that I will fully admit I do not understand and appreciate the nuances of, as I am still a casual fan of the game and do not run it. However, can someone explain to me why there is not a damageless category now that a run has been completed damageless? There are other several other categories that have only two or three runs listed on them - is there a minimum number of completions needed to create a new category? I saw that Legend of Zelda has a "category extensions" where they keep damageless, but I'm not sure the criteria to make a category extension either.

Overall, I feel that damageless is a very awesome niche in speedrunning, and is extremely difficult to accomplish in any game. It's extremely easy for a newcomer to speedrunning to understand the rules of the category and enjoy watching the runs. The tension of "near misses" is also extremely exciting to watch, as well.

If there is an intention to create a Damageless category to put his run into and it just takes time, please feel free to ignore my post. I was just very curious as I've been extremely fascinated with damageless runs recently. Thanks in advance for your time and consideration in reading this!

*Important note - I have not spoken to ViggoTheeCarpathian or anyone else about making this post, this is purely my own curiousity on how the speedrunning community handles new categories and damageless rules are easy for me to understand. If ViggoTheeCarpathian sees this and wants me to remove this post, I will happily do so.